As we crawl out of bed this morning, it is with bleary eyes yet enlivened heart that Louis can confirm that Fashion just got its swagger back. Last night Alber Elbaz and Lanvin celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the house and, by so doing, reintroduced the industry to its own joyful, playful, creative pulse; that same pulse that gravitated us all to this game in the first place…that same pulse that all too often gets lost amidst fashion week’s frenetic and at times gruelling pace. I’d like to take a moment to welcome us all back!

Summoned to the 13th arrondissement, we were cordially funneled into a prodigious warehouse space….and then Lanvin began to strut. A star-spangled front row including Tilda Swinton, Jessica Alba, Pharell Williams and Dita von Teese served only as a glamourous entrée for the festivities that ensued. Lanvin orchestrated the scene and its tempo, delaying the show’s start as guests were treated to three-tiered cakes, foie gras lollipops, and champagne by the bucket-load. With the show underway, Mr Elbaz clinically delivered a steady flow of power-amazons adorned in a kaleidoscope of cuts, colors and textures all set to a driving rock ‘n’ roll riff. Lanvin’s collection offered up respite from the soft pastels and florals presented by its contemporaries, a promenade celebrating the strength, pride, colour, and unadulterated glamour of the Lanvin woman.

It was with the utmost emotional eloquence that Elbaz then transformed the warehouse space from showroom to nightclub, taking the stage to deliver a rendition of “Que Sera Sera” that would have had Doris Day dancing in her front row seat. An ostentatious strut? Perhaps. Fabulous?? Most Definitely!

When I was just a little girl

I asked my mother, what will I be

Will I be pretty, will I be rich….

(It appears that so long as Mr Elbaz reigns at the house of Lanvin, the answer is a resounding “YES”.)

“You are the first woman on the first day of creation. You are mother, sister, lover, friend, angel, devil, earth, home.” (Marcello Mastroiani, La Dolce Vita)”

In just one timeless line, Signor Mastroiani best verbalized the celebration of the divine feminine that continues to form the foundation of Italian culture, style and fashion. Such reverence for the Italian woman (amidst irreverence towards her surrounding social confines), serves as the underlying and yet unspoken theme for an imaginary encounter that will take place this May in New York between Miuccia Prada and Elsa Schiaparelli.

On February 24, 2012, Louis Agency had the honour of attending the historic Palazzo Reale in Milan to herald the upcoming “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations” Exhibition to be held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from May 10 through August 19. Inspired by the 1930’s series from Vanity Fair called “Impossible conversations”, the exhibition will create a video discourse between the two designers, blending the recorded words or “Schiap” with questions posed to Ms. Prada by the show’s creative consultant, director Baz Luhrmann. The exhibition will also showcase signature objects from both designers, highlighting different elements of each designers’ unique (though sometimes similar) evocation of beauty, glamour and womanhood, in a series of seven themed galleries: “Waist Up/Waist Down”, “Ugly Chic”, “Hard Chic”, “Naïf Chic”, “The Classical Body”, “The Exotic Body” and “The Surreal Body”.

The Impossible Conversations exhibition ultimately affords us a journey into the realms of the unreal, with the improbable intersection of Schiaparelli and Prada illustrating how diverging paths may often share common, anthemic junctures and, as the show’s curator Harold Koda states, “how the past enlivens the present and how the present enlivens the past”.

It would be remiss of us not to mention that Vogue Editor-in-Chief, Anna Wintour, was also in attendance; her inimitable elegance, style and grace (not to mention her stunning patterned coat and desirous shoes) causing the team here at Louis to channel the very being of Mr Mastroiani and exclaim: “Anna, you are the first woman on the first day of creation”!